2. speakers
  3. 176877-166623

everything sounded great until the upgrade

In short: I loved the sound of my modest system, until I upgraded my amp. Now it  sounds pretty horrible. It went from a warm sweet embracing easy-to-listen sound to knives and forks trying to escape from a bathtub.

So...

1. I can just unplug this new amp (used) and sell it

Any other options? I could upgrade my speakers but I have no budget for that.

2. I could sell the speakers and use money to buy used ones that go with the amp. 

3. Lastly I could change the source, but was it the culprit - to begin with?

btw - the sound of the "new" amp is decent with my turntable, and terrible with my CD player.

(If I wrote brands and models it would throw the discussion into "A sucks, B is great")

grislybutter

Showing 2 responses by riccitone

riccitone
229 posts
 

@grislybutter

Forgive my overstating the dac thing, but I find this fella with his iiWi channel very informative and helpful. Always reviewing great gear at more accessible budget ranges (I’m right there with you on the compromise dilemma). Here he’s favorably comparing the new SMSL M500 to more expensive dacs:

 

I’ve seen this one used for as little as $300 on Amazon. 

riccitone
229 posts
 

Agreeing with what has generally been stated here before, definitely give it more time. May also have been stated before (or you’re already way past this already), but simply pointing speakers past your listening spot or even straight out. Then slowly inching/ incrementally turning them back toward you. Heck, I’ve even noticed speakers actually sounding warmer when pulling them closer together - some how rounding the tone while bringing the image into better focus.

As for a separate dac, so many excellent dacs under 1k. So many under $500 for that matter (especially used). And -of course - they lend their own sound signatures as well. Thinking SMSL on some of their more lush sounding options if you didn’t want to spend too much. But if you could swing a Denafrips Ares II at some point? 👌🏼

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